Christianity in Colonial Mexico - Blog #5

This weeks lesson is on Christianity in Colonial Mexico.

Two important events, Church Councils and Reforms and the Holy Inquisition heavily manipulated the Indians while living under the Spanish Inquistion. The Council of Trent of 1561 mandated that the Spanish and Indians were to be segregated and live seperate lives as Indians were declared inhuman, and lacking moral strength and social virtue. With the Holy Inquisition, all of the initial parishes owned by religious groups were now under the control of the secular clergy, creating an extemely powerful economic entity which now had no disregard for the conversion of the Indians, but as using them as profit bearing, free labor machines. The art and architecture as well at this time made a dramtic change from the Baroque style "of the people" to a more "refined" style to mimic that from Europe and Spain. The churches were being built in a more traditional Christian manner, straying away from the Indian, Posa, and Convento architecture styles of worshipping.

From my point of view on this weeks lesson, is all a matter of what happens to be in style or in demand at the time, regards to the political, economical and social values being exercised at the time by the dominant governing bodies. Just as in our times today with the economic crisis, certain issues that were OK to discuss and bring out in the open are sensitive and taboo now. Al so I say that it had to do with the maturization of New Spain and that it was time for it to catch up to the rest of the Spanish kindgdom, but unfortunatley it was all at the expense of the Indigneous INdians.

The Indigeneous Response - Part II

Create a blog for this week that relates something you read about or watched from this week to your everyday world. This is blog #4, please label it blog #4.

The section that I choose to comment on from this weeks assignment is Gloria Anzaldua's work and her reflections of growing up in a biethnical world. Reading these reflections from Gloria really hit home and stirred up some mixed emotions within me.

As I am of mixed ethnicity, but predominately raised in the Mexican culture due to my father's family vast numbers and my mother being an only child, I have experienced similar language transitions while interacting within separate collections of people. One day I will be at a immediate family gathering and use about 2-3 unique versions of Spanish to communicate among the elders (from Mexico), cousins and friends (1st Gen. born in US) and the younger generation (2nd Gen in US)

Also even though I have never experience "straight out right ignorant" racist remarks directed towards my decision to communicate in Spanish outside of the family walls, quite few of my cousins have expressed being involved and "being corrected" by school admins, councilers, and those holding tax paying jobs that are supposibly their to help and guide our youth, but instead are oppressing and imposing their descriminating ideology and raciest views on innocent, malleable, young minds.

Well let me quit now before I get up and start a riot, but as others outside of the multi-ethnical world would assume that those of us that from families who's parents are from other countries and express very stong ties to their culture, its not easy having to grow up having two identies to follow and being expected to be great in each of them when it comes to language, traditional values, and cultural norms.